This invention relates to a serving pot and more specifically to a serving pot having dual compartments.
As the concern over the undesirable side effects caused by the ingestion of caffeine increased it became the custom of most restaurants, coffee shops, etc. to offer both "regular" and "decaffeinated" coffee. Typically, when both types of coffee are offered, the establishment brews and serves each type of coffee in a separate serving pot. Customarily, the "decaffeinated" coffee is served in a pot having an orange top while the "regular" coffee is served in a pot having a brown top. The use of two separate pots causes the waitress or other server to make a number of trips between the brewing area and the serving area or in the alternative to carry a pot in each hand.
While the devices shown in the prior art patents listed above deal with the broad concept of compartmentalized serving pots, they have a number of drawbacks. For instance, the device shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 1,577,781 patent only has one pouring spout, while a number of the other devices either do not have a removable top or are not easily separated. Also, a number of the devices are not provided with a pivoting cap for selectively opening one of the openings in a compartmentalized pot.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a compartmentalized serving pot is provided with a pair of pot halves having substantially flat inner walls that abut each other when the halves are joined so as to form a single serving pot with the walls cooperating to define a divider in the pot so as to define a pair of compartments in the pot.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the serving pot is provided with locking means which releasably maintains the halves in engagement with each other.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, a lid member is connected to one of the halves and is movable between first and second positions to selectively close one of the openings and open the other during serving.
The present invention thus provides a compartmentalized serving pot which can be separated so that each halve may be filled independently of the other and then the halves may be joined to form a single serving container having a lid member that selectively opens or closes one or the other of the pot halves.